My last trip to New Hampshire for a while...part 1

While in New Hampshire a little over a week ago, I got to experience 3 bouts of snowstorms (I love them, however, everyone else up there wishes they wouldn't happen...). I had my handy dandy new camera with me (my amazing Christmas and birthday present from the 'rents--thank you!), which made me itch to go outside and play with different settings.

Tina, snuggled up with Gracie (their miniature pincher)

My lovely brother got me this book for my birthday, which I started devouring during my time there.

The view looking down the street from J & T's house.

Dressed and ready to head outside. It was in the teens, I believe...

Snow #1: the snow that caused my flight to be canceled which ended up being perfect because I got to extend my (last trip) up to New England for a while. Total blessing in disguise!

A very dry snow...but still b-e-a-youuuuutiful (name that movie...)

el fin!

the evolution of a design

Any person from the College of Architecture would tell you that you never use your first design as your final design. There has to be an evolution...that's where great ideas stem from! So let me introduce to you my latest evolution of a design: the rehearsal dinner invitation for my brother's wedding. I had picked out the two designs below a long, long time ago {sidenote: there may only be ONE thing that catches my attention on an inspiration image, but I nonetheless save it to it's respectable folder and wait until I need it again}.

Remember my post from before on wood? That's where I was wanting to go with these invitations. Then I found these neat cards at Michael's and I knew they were perfect. Let the printing process begin...

SIDENOTE: To get the spacing correct, I probably printed this thing 25+ times.

The green part is an envelope with a cutout in the middle where "please join us" shows through. So you pull out the actual invitation from inside the green card.

Attempt #1: This was just a quick attempt in Photoshop, where I didn't know what information actually needed to go on the invite, I knew my parents would hate the fonts, and I stole the tree and tree ring from other places. The main point of this one was to see if my parents would like the tree, enough for me to draw my own.

Attempt #2: changed fonts, messed with wording, still playing...

It just didn't make sense to have a tree ring sitting up on it's edge like that. So I x-nayed the tree ring and decided to make my own tree stump (much more believable?). I sketched the image above, scanned it in, and started playing in Photoshop...

Attempt #3: I could not for the life of me figure out what to put on the tree stump. Mom did NOT like having the J+T on the tree stump because it was on a dead tree then...once she said it, I knew I couldn't leave it there. We also got rid of "A rehearsal dinner"...changing it just to "rehearsal dinner."

Attempt #4: We shortened the wording (getting rid of "to honor the bride and groom-to-be), and then Mom decided that it needed MAPLE leaves falling to the ground (to be more realistic). And you all wonder where my perfectionism comes from.

Attempt #5: The actual invitation! Complete with maple leaves falling (they wanted their wedding in the fall), J+T on the tree that is still ALIVE, and Lydia happy with the end result.

wood.

While in New Hampshire a week ago, my brother and Tina had a rather large tree removed from their backyard. Now would be the time to explain that their backyard is literally a dense forest with no fence. It's absolutely beautiful in the winter with a couple feet of snow blanketing the ground and all of the trees. When I was there a few years ago for Christmas, we went snow-shoeing through the woods in their backyard. Quite fun!!! And a great workout.

I'm getting side-tracked though...back to wood. Anybody who knows me and has been to my house knows not to put ANYTHING on my table that I made during furniture design. After spending 5 weeks slaving away designing, measuring (measure twice, cut once), re-designing, sanding, painting, drilling, sealing, gluing, you get the idea, I am a little protective of my piece of furniture.

Please excuse the Tacky Christmas attire. Like the red chairs? They came from the McFarlin rummage sale a few years ago. Recovered with a yard of fabric from Hancocks...total cost: $10?

Anywho...I found this ADORABLE image on a cute DIY blog...I need to get better about citing where I find images. I will do my best to start doing that from now on!

Since the groom's family is in charge of the Rehearsal Dinner, I somewhat asked (okay...Mom knew she would have to relinquish some control for the decor that would be for the dinner) if I could decorate the place. When I saw the "Mr." and "Mrs." painted on pieces of wood...my mind started racing with ideas. The dinner will be held at The Coach Stop, which is a charming restaurant that Tina suggested. If Jeremy could cut me enough pieces of wood to have those be the place cards at the dinner, it would be absolutely perfect. Now all I had to do was sweet talk my brother...

Jeremy {of course} obliged, and he got out there the next day to start cutting! When it occurred to me I could do a few more things with larger pieces of wood, Jeremy wasn't exactly thrilled to cut them (they took all of 3-5 minutes...quit your whining). But I do have the best brother in the world...so he patiently cut away for his dear little sister :)

The wood on the right side of the picture was the tree that had just been removed. Jeremy has to cut it, split it, and stack it for his wood-burning stove, which heats their house tremendously during the winter. I got to use his {lime green} chainsaw (check that off my list of power tools to learn how to use!) in addition to the ax which splits wood! Talk about feeling powerful...

Check out some of these amazing inspiration images I stumbled upon during my search of all things wood:

I need to start painting people's names on the wood and experimenting with fonts and colors. Happy almost weekend!

P.S. NEW YORK CITY COUNTDOWN: 5 days and counting!!!!!!